Corsair 800D Air Cooling

[Johannespaul]

I realized that this was the only thing I could do if I didn't want three (two in my case) 12 cm fans howling at the top of my case and a "should be an exhaust" fan blowing dust into my case. Even with that solution, the GPU cooling was still on the poor side. The thought of running SLI in this case was just hilarious. I realized what this case needed was what every serious case manufacturer is doing in a case like this, a side panel fan. These days in the world of smoking hot GTX 480's, you need a direct stream of air blowing directly on the GPU. I originally chose an NZXT 20 cm fan for the job, but the filters were dreadful looking. While looking for a filter to match the 800D's style I stumbled upon the Silverstone 18 cm grille/filter. This lead me to the Silverstone AP181 fan. This proved to be a great choice because the fan blows a focused stream of air across my video card and chipset heatsink dramatically reducing temperatures and GPU fan speed. The fan is also quiet and moves plenty of air on the low setting. This fan has allowed me to remove the excess top fans and make the exhaust fan an exhaust fan. I think the results a very good since the temps across the board either match or are lower than my previous case which was a Thermaltake Armour with the 23 cm fan (the previous version of the current Armour).

The idle temps are from the system running for 30 mins after booting up. The load temps are the highest observed temps from a 1 hr session of Battlefield Bad Company 2. All temps were from the side fan running on the "low" setting.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Im sorry to say this but side panel fans should be banned, and that just looks so wrong.

Should have just bought a decent case as that doesnt even look tidy now

 

[Stryker64]

800D is built for watercooling, air cooling in it is just plain wrong in my opinion >.< But for as side fans modes go, that would probably be the best I've seen, but personally it ruins the clean sleek look of the window.

 

[Johannespaul]

I know the case was designed for water cooling and I would love to cool this rig without the fan blocking the view of my components but it was the only case that met all the requirements I needed. I needed the case to be packed with features I needed for the forseeable future including support for water cooling. I wanted my next to last me until they were ripping ATX out of my cold dead hands. The only other case, the CM HAF X, was the other contender but it fell short of the 800D in what I was looking for.

This solution is only temporary. Until I graduate from school, the cost of water cooling is something that I can not have taking up the budget I set when building a system. Especially when the cost of such a set up would cut into things like a GPU. The big window being held in by nuts was actually the make or break feature that sold me as I knew that I would most likely have to mod the side window for better air flow (I tried the other cooling solutions because I got temporarily lazy). The window in there currently is actually a replica of the original one so when the time comes to water cool I can pop the original back in.

 

[tavi_rocky]

nice pc

)

 

[DrBoomstick]

I admire what you have done here dude, I wouldn't have done it myself but its nice to see someone who saw something they wanted and went out and did it.

Well done mate, hope you are happy with your build.